Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	believe_v	faith_n	true_a	6,511	5	5.4598	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59577	The things that make for peace delivered in a sermon preached before the right honourable the Lord Mayor, and the Court of Aldermen, at Guild-Hall-Chappel, upon the 23 of August, 1674 / by John Sharpe, D.D., now Lord Arch-bishop of York.	Sharp, John, 1645-1714.; Hooker, William, Sir, 1612-1697.	1691 (1691)	Wing S3004; ESTC R41707	19,125	33

necessary points and those that are not so and in those things that are not necessary would not rigorously tie up others to their measures but would allow every man to abound in his own sense so long as the Churches Peace is not hereby injured we should not have so many bitter Quarrels and Heart-burnings among us But alas whilest every one will frame a Systeme of Divinity of his own head and every puny Notion of that Systeme must be Christn'd by the name of an Article of Faith and every man that doth not believe just as he doth must straight be a Heretick for not doing so How can it be expected but we must wrangle eternally It were heartily to be wished that Christians would consider that the Articles of Faith those things that God hath made necessary by every one to be believed in order to his Salvation are but very few and they are all of them so plainly and clearly set down in the Scripture that it is impossible for any sincere honest-minded man to miss of the true sense of them And they have further this Badge to distinguish them from all other Truths that they have an immediate influence upon mens Lives a direct Tendency to make men Better whereas most of those things that make the matter of our Controversies and about which we make such a noise and clamour and for which we so bitterly censure and anathematize one another are quite of another nature They are neither so clearly revealed or propounded in the Scripture but that even good men through the great difference of their Parts Learning and Education may after their best endeavours vary in their sentiments about them Nor do they at all concern a Christian Life but are matters of pure notion and speculation So that it cannot with any reason be pretended that they are points upon which Mens Salvation doth depend It cannot be thought that God will be offended with any man for his Ignorance or Mistakes concerning them And if not if a man may be a Good Christian and go to Heaven whether he holds the right or the wrong side in these matters for God's sake Why should we be angry with any one for having other Opinions about them than we have Why should we not rather permit men to use their Vnderstandings as well as they can and where they fail of the Truth to bear with them as God himself without question will than by stickling for every impertinent unnecessary Truth destroy that Peace and Love and Amity that ought to be among Christians The second thing I would recommend is a great simplicity and purity of Intention in the pursuit of Truth and at no hand to let passion or interest or any self-end be ingredient into our Religion The practice of this would not more conduce to the discovery of Truth than it would to the promoting of Peace For it is easie to observe that it is not always a pure concernment for the Truth in the points in Controversie that makes us so zealous so fierce and so obstinate in our Disputes for or against them but something of which that is only the Mask and Pretence some By-ends that must be served some Secular Interest that we have espoused which must be carried on We have either engaged our selves to some Party and so its Interests right or wrong must be promoted or we have taken up an opinion inconsiderately at the first and appeared in the favour of it and afterward our own credit doth oblige us to defend it or we have received some slight or disappointment from the Men of one way and so in pure pet and revenge we pass over to their Adversaries Or it is for our gain and advantage that the Differences among us be still kept afoot or we desire to get our selves a name by some great Atchievments in the Noble Science of Controversies or we are possessed with a spirit of Contradiction or we delight in Novelties or we love to be singular These are the things that too often both give birth to our Controversies and also nourish and foment them If we would but cast these Beams out of our eyes we should both see more clearly and certainly live more peaceably But whilest we pursue base and sordid ends under the pretence of maintaining Truth we shall always be in error and always in contention Let us therefore quit our selves of all our pre-possessions let us mortify all our Pride and Vain-glory our Passion and Emulation our Covetousness and Revenge and bring nothing in the world to our Debates about Religion but only the pure love of Truth and then our Controversies will not be so long and they will be more calmly and peaceably managed and they will redound to the greater good of all Parties And this I dare say further to encourage you to labour after this temper of mind That he that comes thus qualified to the study of Religion though he may not have the luck always to light on the Truth yet with all his errors be they what they will he is more acceptable to God than the Man that hath Truth on his side yet takes it up or maintains it to serve a turn He that believes a Falsehood after he hath used his sincere endeavours to find the Truth is not half so much a Heretick as he that professeth a Truth out of evil Principles and prostituteth it to unworthy ends The third Rule is Never to quarrel about Words and Phrases but so long as other men mean much what the same that we do let us be content though they have not the luck to express themselves so well I do not know how it comes to pass whether through too much heat and eagerness of disputing that we do not mind one anothers Sense or whether through too much love to our own manner of Thinking or Speaking that we will not endure any thing but what is conveyed to us in our own Methods But really it often happens that most bitter Quarrels do commence not so much from the different Sense of the contending Parties concerning the things they contend about as from their different Terms expressing the same Sense and the different Grounds they proceed upon or Arguments they make use of for the proof of it For my part I verily believe that this is the Case of several of those Disputes in which we Protestants do often engage at this day I do not think in many points our Differences are near so wide as they are sometimes represented but that they might easily be made up with a little allowance to mens Words and Phrases and the different Methods of deducing their Notions It would be perhaps no hard matter to make this appear in those Controversies that are so much agitated among us concerning Faith and Justification and the necessity of good works to Salvation and Imputed Righteousness and the difference between Virtue and Grace with some others if this were a fit place

Hooker Mayor Jovis xxvii die Augusti 1674. Annoque Regni Regis CAROLI Secundi Angliae c. xxvi ORdered by this Court That Mr. Sharpe be desired to Print his Sermon Preached on Sunday last before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of this City at the Guild-Hall Chappel Wagstaffe Imprimatur Sept. 11. 1674. Guliel Wigan Rev. in Ch. Pat. ac Do. Do. Humf. Episc Lond. in Sac. Dom. The Things that make for Peace Delivered in a SERMON Preached before the Right Honourable THE Lord Mayor AND THE Court of ALDERMEN AT GVILD-HALL-CHAPPEL Upon the 23. of August 1674. By JOHN SHARPE D. D. now Lord Arch-Bishop of YORK The Second Editon LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1691. TO THE Right Honourable Sir WILLIAM HOOKER Lord Mayor OF LONDON And to the COURT of ALDERMEN Right Honourable THE following Discourse was never designed to go further than your own Chappel otherwise it had not been left so Imperfect But since you have thought fit to Order it should be more Publick it would ill become me who do in it so earnestly press Obedience to Superiours to dispute your Commands Such therefore as it is I humbly present it to you heartily wishing it may in some degree minister to the Promoting Peace and Unity and Brotherly Love among us which is the only thing therein aimed at by Right Honourable Your most Humble and Obedient Servant JOHN SHARPE ROM xiv 19. Let us therefore follow after the things that make for Peace THE Apostle's design in this Chapter is to perswade the Roman Christians to live Peaceably one with another notwithstanding all their different Perswasions in matters of Religion He doth not so much set himself to Resolve their Contraversies to determine which Side held the Truest Opinions as to Silence their Disputes to allay those Bitternesses and Animosities with which the several Parties prosecuted each other to oblige them to embrace one another in Christian Charity and though there could not be an Vnity of Judgment among them which certainly is a thing can never be expected mens apprehensions concerning things being necessarily almost as various as are their Tempers and Complexions yet nevertheless they should so order the matter that there might at least be an Vnity of Affection and an amicable communication one with another He represents to them that they had nothing to do to Judge or Censure their Brethren Ver. 4. seq for they were God's Servants and to Him only they stood or fell that though they were mistaken in their Notions as to the Points in Controversie yet nevertheless if what was done upon those mistaken Principles was done out of a pure heart and as in obedience to the Commands of God it would be accepted of him Ver. 13 14 15. He is so far from countenancing their Religious Quarrels that he adviseth even those that held the true side of the Question to submit for Peace sake and rather to recede from their right to forbear doing that which they might lawfully do than by undue use of their Liberty to cast a Stumbling-block before the weak uninstructed Dissenters and be a means of their forsaking Christianity Ver. 17. And the more to enforce this Discourse he assures them that however they might pretend Religion for their present differences yet in truth That was of all other things the least interessed in them They were much mistaken in the nature of it if they took it to consist in such small inconsiderable external things as they made the matter of their Dissensions Christianity was not much concerned whether they are such kind of Meats or whether they did not eat them whether they kept Sabbaths and New-Moons holy to the Lord or whether they esteemed every day alike That was a more inward and a more noble thing It was the hearty practice of Righteousness and Peace and Rejoycing to do good These were the things that made a man a Christian Ver. 18. and in These things faith the Apostle be that serveth Christ is indeed acceptable to God and approved of men And then at last from these several Particulars he draws this general Inference by way of Exhortation Let us therefore follow after the things that make for peace I have given you a brief account of the Apostle's discourse in this Chapter and I could heartily wish that I had no occasion to deal any further upon this Subject Happy were it for Christians if things were in that posture among them that they were no further concerned in these Discourses of Scripture than only to be instructed in the sense of them But alas whoever understands any thing of the state of Christianity now for these many Ages in the World will easily see that no one Point of our Religion has been in all times more necessary to be daily preached to be earnestly pressed to be loudly sounded in the ears of Christians than this of Peace and Love and mutual sufferance under their different apprehensions of Religion It has fared as one hath observed with Christianity in this matter Mr. Hales as it did with the Jewish Dispensation of old The great and principal Commandment which God gave the Jews and which as they themselves teach was the Foundation of all their Law was to worship the God of Israel and Him only to serve yet such was the sottishness and perverseness of that People that This was the Commandment that of all others they could never be obliged to keep but they were continually running a whoring after the Gods of the Nations notwithstanding all the various ways and methods that God made use of to reclaim them from that sin What the Worship of one God was to the Jews that Peace and Love and Vnity is to the Christians even the grand distinguishing Law and Character of their Profession and yet with sorrow and to our unspeakable confusion it may be spoken There is no Religion that ever was known in the World hath given Birth to so many Heresies hath been intituled to so many needless Disputes and Quarrels hath been crumbled into so many Sects and Parties hath been prosecuted by all the several Pretenders to it with so much heat and fury and implacable animosity hath been made the occasion of so much Tumult War and Bloodshed as this excellent this innocent and gall-less Religion of ours To go no further than our selves and the posture we stand in at this day if ever any Society of Christians could be obliged to live in Brotherly Love and Communion with one another we certainly are the Men. For besides the engagements of our Religion common to us with other Christians we have all the external advantages which a wise and well-temper'd Settlement of Church-affairs a mild and just Government and excellent Laws can give to the promoting thereof Religion is established among us in as great Purity as ever perhaps it was since the Apostles times The Government we

unwarrantable those Grounds are upon which many among us have proceeded to Separation from our Church For first If what I have laid down be true it cannot be true that unscriptural Impositions can be a warrantable cause of separation from a Church supposing that by Vnscriptural be meant no more than only what is neither Commanded nor Forbid in the Sciptures For the Actions required by these Vnscriptural Impositions are either in themselves lawful to be done or not lawful to be done If they be in themselves unlawful to be done then they do not fall under that notion of Vnscriptural we here speak of they are downright Sins and so either particularly or in the general forbid in the Scripture If they be in themselves lawful to be done then it cannot be imagined how their being commanded can make them unlawful So that in this case there is no Sin in yielding obedience to the Church and consequently no cause of withdrawing our Communion from it Nor secondly can it be true that the Church requiring from us any doubtful or suspected practices as Conditions of her Communion is a just cause of Separation for we must have at least as much certainty of the unlawfulness of the actions enjoyned as we have of our Obligation to the Authority that enjoyns them before we withdraw our Obedience to it otherwise we do not proceed upon safe grounds but now we are absolutely certain that God hath commanded us to obey them that have the rule over us but we are not certain that the actions we here speak of are any where forbid by him for if we were they would be no longer doubtful or suspected they would be certain Sins so that if we will follow the surer side as all Christians in these cases are bound to do we must continue our Obedience to the Church notwithstanding we suspect or doubt the lawfulness of her Commands Neither thirdly can it be true that Errours in a Church as to matter of Doctrines or Corruptions as to matter of Practice so long as those Errours and Corruptions are only suffered but not imposed can be a sufficient cause of Separation the reason is because these things are not Sins in us so long as we do not joyn with the Church in them So that so long as we can Communicate with a Church without either professing her Errours or partaking in her sinful Practices as in the present case it is supposed we may do so long we are bound upon the Principle before laid down not to separate from her Neither in the fourth and last place is the enjoying a more profitable Ministry or living under a more pure Discipline in another Church a just cause of forsaking the Communion of that whereof we are now Members The reason is because we are not to commit the least crime for the attaining the greatest good in the World Now it is a crime to forsake the Communion of the Church whereof we are Members so long as her Communion is not sinful But the enjoyment of a less profitable Ministry or a less pure Discipline doth not make her Communion sinful therefore the enjoyment of a more profitable Ministry or a more pure Discipline cannot make a Separation from her lawful The fifth and last Proposition is That though we have a just cause to refuse Communion with the Church whereof we are Members in some instances yet we are not therefore to proceed to so total a Separation from it as to erect New Churches in contradistinction to it or to joyn with those that do The reason is clear from the foregoing Principles viz. because we are bound to obey as far as we can and where we cannot to suffer but at no hand to disturb the Peace or break the Vnity of the Church Though we cannot comply with all that the Church requires of us yet still we must joyn with Her in those other things where we lawfully can Nay though the Church should require those things as Conditions of her Communion so that unless we conform to them we cannot at all communicate with her yet still there is a Passive Obedience due from us We must sit still and suffer and not make a Rent in the Church by setting up one Altar against another This is like the setting up a new and a distinct Government in the Bowels of the State Nothing can justify such a degree of departure as this but only one thing to wit so great and general a Corruption of the Church both in Doctrine and Practice that the Salvation of all that communicate with her is thereby endangered Which though it be the condition of the Members of the present Church of Rome yet I dare say sew among us will affirm to be the case of them that communicate with the Church of England Thus have I as briefly as I could represented to you the Particulars of that Duty we owe to our common Mother in the preservation of her Vnity and Communion And I hope I have not been so zealous for Peace as to have been at all injurious to Truth I am confident I have said nothing but what is very agreeable to Scripture and Reason and the sense of the Best and Ancientest Christians And I am certain I have not intrenched upon any of those Grounds upon which our Ancestors proceeded to the Reformation of Religion among us And for most of the things here delivered we have also the suffrage of several and those the most learned and moderate of our dissenting Brethren And now if after this any one be offended as indeed these kind of discourses are seldom very acceptable all I can say is this That the Truths here delivered are really of so great importance to Religion and the publick Peace that they ought not to be dissembled or suppressed for any bad reception they may meet with from some men but as for the manner of delivering them I have taken all the care I could not to give offence to any I now pass on to the second part of my Task upon this Head which is to consider the Duty recommended in the Text with relation to particular Christians our Brethren And here my business is to direct you to the Pursuit of those things that make for Peace as Peace signifies mutual Love and Charity in opposition to Strife and Bitterness and Contentions The things that make for Peace in this sense are more especially these that follow which I shall deliver by way of Rules and Advices The first Rule is to distinguish carefully between matters of Faith and matters of Opinion and as to these latter to be willing that every one should enjoy the liberty of judging for himself This is one thing that would help very much to the extinguishing of those unnatural Heats and Animosities which have long been the Reproach of Christians If men would set no greater value upon their Notions and Opinions than they do deserve if they would make a difference between